The Old School Liver Dish That's Not As Popular As It Once Was
Food and fashion worlds are based on trends, and we tend to take breaks from dishes just as often as we do from animal print or oversized jackets. Ambrosia salad is one dish that has faded out of style, and that's just one of many foods that used to be popular but we don't really eat anymore. Another that was once popular enough to grace dinner tables and diner-style restaurants is liver and onions. It may not sound appealing to a modern palate, but it's a dish that's as close to traditional home cooking as you can get.
Liver and onions is a dish named after its two ingredients: beef liver and caramelized, sliced onions (you can also include bacon). Together, they create a complex profile of bold flavors that balance each other out. Liver has an intense, rich, metallic flavor that is offset by the sweet, pungent taste of caramelized onions. When it was popular, it was a dish made in minutes from ingredients you most assuredly had in your kitchen, and it's much better with a glass of red wine.
Why did liver and onions fall by the wayside?
Liver and onions is an ancient dish that has been part of cultures all over the world for centuries. It is a nutrient-dense, one-pan meal that is hot, satisfying, and home-cooked. Over time, it's had some ups and downs, though. It's an organ meat, considered in much of modern society to be a throwaway part of the animal, instead of choice meat like the ribeye. The bold flavor of liver isn't for everyone, and when liver goes out of style, so do liver and onions. It was a popular dish in wartime America, when harder times made people less picky about their meat cuts, but in the early 20th century it fell out of fashion as liver was abandoned in favor of milder-tasting meats like chicken breast and ground beef.
Liver and onions might not be out of the picture for long. High-protein diets (that aren't just eggs) and high-profile health coaches have started to change the tide of public opinion toward liver. It's getting a rebrand as "the original superfood," and there are quite a few social media posts dedicated to cooking up a pan of liver and onions.